Turkish guards use sticks to hit migrant boats

This incident in which migrant boats were hit using sticks took place in Turkish water body wen the migrants were sailing to Lesbos Island. The EU together with Turkey are yet to agree on new methods to be used in curbing the refugees’ flow.

Since world war to, European has been facing a great refugee crisis. In the year 2015, over one million refugees and other people illegally entered EU by using the boats, mainly from Turkey to Greece.

So far there are over 132,000 migrants who have arrived into Greece by using boats this year. This is the largest increase on the same compared to last year.

The large number of coastguard patrols found in the Aegean are very professional with the Greek and Turkish personnel towing ashore the migrant’s boats or rescuing the capsized ones. But several reports of attacks have been received.

Last year, on the Greek side, masked officials were filmed puncturing inflatable dinghies carrying migrants on board. But the Turkish coastguard are claiming that their aim was to stop the engine and stop the boat advancing.

It is suspected that the coastguard officers involved were not acting according to the orders but on their own, may be fuelled by nationalism or machismo. It can be possible that this is above an isolated case that shows the Turkish officials proceeding further in stemming the floor of migration under new pressure from Brussels.

Either, the EU leaders will be worried in their meeting this week on how to finalize a plan with turkey involved in reducing the number of migrants. Turkey has increased and improved its patrols on the Europeans border.

Disquiet over Turkey’s Deal

The incident which was filmed in the video happened opposite the island in Turkish water very early on Saturday.

This 30-second video clip shows people putting on life jackets hitting a rubber dinghy being hit with poles by other men on another vessel. In Farsi and Arabic, the people on board shout on top of their voices. The migrant boat eventually moved safely and made it to its destination, Lesbos Island.

Later after the incident, a Turkish coastguard officer confirmed that the officers were trying to stop the boat engine without harming anyone on board.

He added that in order to stop the engine, the migrant vessel was to be tied on a coastguard vessel in order to bring it back to Turkey but the captain did not stop the engine and continued with its journey to Greece.

According to our correspondent, other migrants have also been in similar incidents’.